Elias Hunt

Elias Hunt, son of Amos and Rebecca Wiggins, Hunt, was born in Ogden, Weber Co. Utah, Oct. 14th. 1858.  His father Amos Hunt came from Mulhenberg Co. Kentucky.  He was born Feb. 28th. 1819 to John Hunt Jr. and Jane Coats.  Elias’s mother Rebecca Wiggins Hunt was born in Hancock Co. Illinois the 14th. Day of March 1823.  She was the daughter of Ebenezer Fairchild Wiggins and Eleanor Moore.  These ancestors came to Utah with Benjamin Gardner Co.  Arrived in 1852.  Elias had two sisters, Eliza Ellen and Cena Ann.
Elias was three years old when he came with his parents, to the Dixie Mission in the fall of 1861. Just before leaving Ogden his grandmother gave him a little red cap she had made for him, (his grandmother Wiggins) and this was one of his treasures long after they arrived in St. George.  He is certain it is not from hearsay that he remembers so clearly how the wagons formed in a circle for the camping each night on the way down to Dixie.  One night they camped where there was snow and built a large bonfire in the circle of the camp.  As they sat around the fire, he on his fathers knee, Elk came out of the forest right into camp, likely drawn by the small of the hay which the oxen and teams were eating.  One elk was sounded in the shoulder .  Amos in his excitement hit it with an axe, but it got away.
Soon after reaching St. George the Hunts moved to what is still knows as the Toniquint field, south of the city at the foot of Main street.  They were camped on this land when the great flood of a862 came which surrounded their house.  The women and children had to be carried out. Later that spring father Hunt,(Amos) moved with the church cattle to the foot of the pine valley mountain where the Blake and Gubler ranch.  It was here Elias ‘s sister Cena Ann was born in a wagon in 1863.
Amon Hunts 1st. Wife was Nancy Garret Wellborn.  Her children were; Mary Jane, James W., Jonathan, Alfred, Emiline, Jefferson Amos Pratt, Malinda, Nancy Jane, Sarah Dudley, and Angeline.
While at pine Valle there two incidents happened.  Brother Bryner a blind man lived there.  In front of his log cabin was a shed.  He raised pigs, they were loose all over,   He sat under the shed with long willow whips.  One day Malinda and Elias went to visit and when
Bro. Bryner heard the children he mistook them for pigs, he snatched up his whip and started to snap the whip at them, thinking they were pigs.  They very quickly scampered home.